Chennai, Jun 29 (IANS): The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) is to rent out bus shelters, electric posts for advertisements in a bid to spruce up revenue for the corporation.

The corporation has joined hands with the World Bank for this project of increasing revenue for the GCC and the bank will be providing an amount of Rs 22 crore for the project preparation and consultancy fee, an official with GCC told IANS.

A private consultant is already employed by the corporation to provide inputs on methods to shore up its revenue he said. The consultant in its report submitted to the corporation on Tuesday has suggested renting out 1000 bus shelters, 8000 electric posts in the corporation for advertising.

It has also suggested improving the public parking facilities as a major source of revenue generation for the corporation. The corporation will also be providing licenses to erect advertisement pillars.

The GCC will also bring professionals like doctors and Chartered Accountants who are doing their private practice under the tax net. Other self-employed professionals like architects and engineers will also be included in the proposal.

Corporation official also said that GIS mapping will be done on under-assessed properties in the corporation. Presently the corporation is netting a tax revenue of Rs 800 crore per annum and with these new measures, it is expected to increase the tax collection by Rs 1000 crore thus taking the total tax collected a year to Rs 1800 crores.

Corporation official told IANS that the aim is to increase the collection by Rs 3000 crore in a period of three years with a break up of Rs 1000 crore per year.

With the World Bank supporting the project and also funding it, the Corporation will be bound to complete the suggestions put forward by the consultant on time. This will speed up the execution of the project.